CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Alfter it runs 405 km to Alfter; allow about 5 h 13 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 1/36*, Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell and back through Watchtowers WP 1/36*. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In the Kottenforst, a Maar is not a volcano's crater, as it would be in the nearby Eifel, but a small pond or wet hollow in the forest floor, and the Pfaffenmaar, the priests' pond, is a good example. The word has been used locally for centuries for any round, water-filled depression, and these hollows give the forest a dotted pattern of reeds, alders and dark water. The reason is the heavy clay under the thin soil, which holds rainwater and keeps parts of the woods boggy for much of the year.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/36*.
Julius Caesar put a bridge across the Rhine somewhere near here in 55 BC, a feat of carpentry that his own account says took ten days. Scholars still argue about the exact spot, but the Neuwied basin is one of the favourite candidates, and that gives the surrounding hills an extra layer of legend. A century and a half later the Romans came back for good and built the Limes along the heights above the river, with a chain of timber towers watching the Germanic side. The asterisk on this tower's number marks it as a conjectural position rather than a confirmed one.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/36* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/36* comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell.
The Rhine was the northern frontier of the Roman Empire for centuries, and the string of forts, towers and camps along its western bank is now recognised as the Lower Germanic Limes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
Read the complete Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 203 km into the recorded legs you reach Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/36*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/36* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/36*, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2. That is the ride.
Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 → Watchtowers WP 1/36* is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/36* → Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Neuss-Reckberg | Kleinkastell → back through Watchtowers WP 1/36* is 121 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/36* → Kottenforst Nord | Pfaffenmaar 1 and 2 is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.